The PGA Tour stays in Mexico for one more week for the World Wide Technology Championship from El Cardonal at Diamante.
Formerly held at El Camaleon, the WWT moved to El Cardonal for the 2023 edition, first won by Erik van Rooyen.
The course’s most notable feature is its mile-wide fairways that even the most wayward hitters will have no issue finding.
As such, logic suggests siding with bombers; if there’s no advantage to driving accuracy, then surely distance is the way to go? Well, the last two winners being Austin Eckroat and Ben Griffin, who both ranked 60th for driving distance, suggests not.
Last year’s joint-runners-up were Chad Ramey and Sami Valimaki, with Justin Lower and Carson Young the first two home the previous year.
While added distance off the tee won’t hurt, this week’s test ultimately comes down to where you stick your irons and whether you can hole enough putts on the paspalum greens.
In terms of putts per green in regulation (and keep in mind greens will be found in regulation on around 16 out of 18 holes per round), the last three winners have finished fourth, second and second, meaning a hot flat stick is essential.
Despite being a coastal course, where weather conditions can temper scoring, El Cardonal represents one of the easiest tests on the PGA Tour with winning scores of -27, -24 and -29.
Winds seem fairly calm this week and players are once again likely going to require four rounds in the mid-60s to contend.
Ryan Gerard heads the field this week, but does he top our Power Rankings? Read on to find out.
5 - Ben James
The Bermuda Championship, often played in howling winds, was perhaps not the most likely venue for Ben James to get that inevitable first PGA Tour win, but El Cardonal might be.
The FedExCup Fall gives James plenty of chances against weaker fields – something he might not get the opportunity to do next year – to lift his first piece of silverware as a professional, though he is running out of time.
James ranked fourth for SG: Ball-striking at the Mexico Open last week, suggesting the missed cut in Bermuda was only a one-off.
We don’t have a large sample size to go off in terms of course history with James, but he does have a really impressive T4 from the Corales Puntacana Championship – played on paspalum – from July that suggests a degree of comfort with the surface.
James’s approach play has often been excellent since graduating to the PGA Tour, and given that he won’t have to be dealing with the randomness presented by Bermudan weather, the 23-year-old should create plenty of birdie chances this week.
4 - Michael Kim
Having skipped Mexico, Michael Kim slipped to 65th in the FedEx standings, but might only need one good week to crack the top 60 to book a place in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis.
Having worked hard to improve his driving in 2025, Kim has taken a backward step in 2026, but with El Cardonal being s second-shot course, the American can put his issues with the big stick to one side.
In terms of recent form, Kim has been good; he recorded back-to-back top-10s at the 3M Open and Rocket Classic and was T24 and T17 in his first two FedExCup Fall events with a T7 at the Open de France sandwiched in between.
Kim also has a nice record on what should be relevant courses. He has two top-30s in his two trips to El Cardonal, a solo-fifth in Puerto Rico, a T14 at Corales, a T11 at Sea Island, a T13 at Vidanta Vallarta and he was T6 at last year’s Cognizant Classic, suggesting a liking for courses that are either coastal, short, paspalum or both.
3 - Keith Mitchell
A decent season – with a highlight T4 finish at the US Open – means Keith Mitchell can start making plans for the first two Signature Events of 2026.
His T34 at the FedEx St Jude meant Mitchell was the last man to miss out on a place at the BMW Championship but he’s put that behind him, finishing T2 at the Bermuda Championship.
Mitchell’s in a good place to pick and choose his events to finish the season with, and it’s interesting he’s picked El Cardonal, a place he’s no better than T38 in his three appearances.
While distance doesn’t appear all that useful at El Cardonal, it certainly doesn’t hurt, and Mitchell can send it, complementing his distance with strong iron play. As per Golf Betting System, Mitchell ranks first for SG: OTT, T2G and TOT across the last eight events.
Mitchell has some nice results on paspalum courses with a pair of runner-up finishes at Corales and a T19 in Mexico. He’s also won at what was the Honda Classic, and a second PGA Tour win might be within his grasp this week.
2 - Ben Griffin
Ben Griffin’s form coming into the Mexico Open was neither here nor there; he’d not played since the BMW Championship where he was T44 on the back of a T42 and two missed cuts.
But his apparent liking for the venue carried him to a second consecutive T4 at Vidanta Vallarta.
There’s a correlation between results at El Cardonal and PGA National, and Griffin was T4 there in 2025, strengthening his cause this week.
Coming into this week as the defending champion, Griffin has plenty in his favour to go back-to-back.
1 - Ryan Gerard
In 2024, Ryan Gerard was slumming it on the Korn Ferry Tour, harbouring ambitions of returning to the PGA Tour after his debut season in 2023.
Back then, had you offered Gerard a third-place finish on the Tour Championship two years later, he’d likely have taken it.
Gerard has played some really good golf over the last 12 months, losing in a play-off at the Memorial and recording a top-10 in his first Open Championship.
One of the world’s best iron players, Gerard has started to hole the putts that are shaving strokes off his card and catapulting him up the world rankings.
Gerard has top-20s at Grand Reserve, Corales, El Cardonal and Vidanta Vallarta and was fourth on debut at PGA National, following that up with two more top-25s.
Gerard has the game for this week and the course form to go with it, making him a very worthy favourite.
